After visiting my brother-in-law, Herbert Victor Dickens, at the VA Hospital, Gainesville, I flew back late in the afternoon landing about 6:00 p.m. at St. Augustine, KSGJ. They have started some work on Runway 13, and the threshhold had been displaced 1,800 feet.

Victor has had a coronary bypass surgery and is doing well. The doctors, nurses and all the staff at the VA Hospital have been terrific.

My own Father, H. L. Kent, received many years of excellent medical care at this same hospital. I will never forget the wonderful care he received. My Dad was a Sgt. in the United States Marines in WWII, and fought bravely in the Pacific, participating in the battle of Okinwawa from the first day to the last, then went with his Marine Division for the occupation of Japan.

At the VA Hospital yesterday I met a true war hero of WWII, Sgt. Robert Altman. Mr. Altman was serving his last day as a volunteer in the Surgical Intensive Care waiting room - having logged 6,000 volunteer hours. Sgt. Altman joined the Army Air Corps in 1937, was assigned to Hickam Field, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, then to Clark Field, Phillipines, where he was when Japan attacked. His B-17 bomber crew became famous for their successful bombing raid on Japanese naval vessels, three days after Pearl Harbor, single handedly sinking a Japanese naval cruiser. On the flight back the B-17 was attacked by a squadron of Japanese Zeros, strafed, and shot down. Sgt. Altman was wounded but managed to parachute out. The pilot was the famous Colin P. Kelly. Sgt. Altman was taken prisoner by the Japanese, he served as a slave laborer in Japan, in a railroad yard, for 40 months until Japan surrendered. He spent six months in a US hospital recovering. Thank you Sgt. Altman for your service!